Les Enfants Terrible

I ALMOST CAN'T BELIEVE IT, BUT IT LOOKS as though the nuclear option has been averted...for now.

Under the terms, Democrats agreed to allow final confirmation votes for Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor, appeals court nominees they have long blocked. There is "no commitment to vote for or against" the filibuster against two other conservatives named to the appeals court, Henry Saad and William Myers.

What has transpired here is that Democrats, who would not allow 51 senators to choose federal justices on the senate floor, are now perfectly happy allowing 14 senators to make the decision in a back room. The hypocricy is almost too much to bear. As if that weren't bad enough, read this next passage:

The agreement said future judicial nominees should "only be filibustered under extraordinary circumstances," with each senator - presumably the Democrats - holding the discretion to decide when those conditions had been met. Officials said the pact was intended to cover the Supreme Court as well as other levels of the judicary.

I was of the distinct impression that those "extraordinary conditions" had been met in the eyes of Democrats. Is there one single reason to believe that they won't use this very same tactic when nominations for the Supreme Court come up for a vote? The only difference between that future time and now, then, is that the Republican Party may have just given away the ability of the majority party to stop it.

Alas, there is already dissent among the ranks as to the meaning of the agreement, with the Democrats saying it offers "iron clad" protection of the filibuster, and the Republicans saying that the protections are only safe as long as the Democrats don't abuse the "extraordinary circumstances" clause of the agreement.

There is no clear answer tonight who is blessed with deciding that criteria. Presumably, it will be the minority party, who has now become for all intents and purposes...the majority party.

I don't believe that democracy has been served at all tonight. The only lesson that has been learned is that if you shout loud enough, and make enough ridiculous charges against qualified nominees, and throw tantrums on the senate floor, you can force the Republican Party to hand away it's majority status, in exchange for the confirmation of a few judges that, apparently, weren't that disagreeable after all.

Hinderaker points out: Now the Republicans are treating the execrable Robert Byrd like a hero! Unbelievable. What a low moment. "We have kept the Republic," Byrd says. I think I'm going to be sick.

Me too. I can't even express how disappointing this is. Does anyone actually believe the Democratic Party will now become reasonable on this issue? Why should they not feel emboldened to get even more hysterical? I can only hope that the two parties continue to squabble over the details of this treacherous document until it falls apart entirely.

Bench Memos has all the reaction to the deal.